In the Depths of Despair

Grief hangs over the flying boat as it races toward Fort Salta with a tank only half full, though Onyankopon vows to get them there. Armin sketches the Founding Titan's silhouette and admits they cannot assume Eren occupies the nape, since the War Hammer Titan's power lets its user operate from anywhere in the body. His Colossal Titan's explosive transformation could destroy the whole frame, but he wants it saved as a final option after every attempt at dialogue fails. Levi adds a second path: kill Zeke, the royal blood enabling the Rumbling, if he can be found within the giant. Scouts and Warriors alike wonder aloud whether some part of Eren wants to be stopped, since he has left their Titan powers and their freedom untouched.

The answer comes when Eren drags them all into the Paths. Appearing as his child self beneath the great tree, later joined by Ymir, he refuses every appeal, declaring that he will not gamble Paradis's future, that he is stealing the world's freedom to preserve his own, and that they retain the freedom to defend the world, which means killing him. Discussion, he says flatly, has no place left. Returned to the aircraft, Levi asks Armin for a plan. At sea, Kiyomi Azumabito confesses to Annie that she prized clan honor over doing everything possible for the Eldians, while Falco recounts a dream inherited from Zeke's memories through his spinal fluid: a vision of himself flying, which he believes his bestial Titan can achieve.

In Marley, a hijacked train packed with Eldian refugees from Liberio, including the Warriors' families, steams toward Fort Salta with Annie's father holding a gun on the engineer. They arrive to find the airships already gone, launched on a bombing run against the approaching Wall Titans. Commander Müller addresses his soldiers not with a rallying cry but a confession, that Marley fed its own hatred into the "island of devils" until it birthed the monster now marching that hatred home. Watching a mother shield her child, Karina Braun collapses, understanding at last that she raised Reiner as an instrument of revenge rather than a son. As the bombs fall wide, light gathers along the Founding Titan's spines and takes the Beast Titan's shape, which flings a debris barrage skyward in Zeke's signature style, annihilating the airship fleet.

Armin structures the alliance's plan: talk first, locate and kill Zeke if possible, and hold the Colossal Titan's explosive transformation in reserve as the last resort against the Founding Titan.

Eren summons the alliance into the Paths and, appearing as a child beside Ymir, tells them the Rumbling will not stop and that their only remaining choice is to kill him.

Falco realizes that Zeke's spinal fluid passed him fragments of Zeke's memories and suspects his Beast-type Titan can fly.

Eldian refugees, among them the Warriors' parents, reach Fort Salta just as its airships depart; the bombing run fails, and a Beast Titan projection formed from the Founding Titan's spine destroys every airship. Müller and Karina Braun each reckon with the hatred they helped cultivate.

The episode adapts the chapters Sinners and In the Depths of Despair from the War for Paradis arc. Jun Shishido and Ryota Aikei directed, Hiroshi Seko wrote, and MAPPA produced, with Saigo no Kyojin opening and Itterasshai closing. It aired in Japan on November 5, 2023.

It is the third of three episodes, offered only on Japanese streaming platforms, that together form the episodic cut of THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 1. The in-universe segment profiles Fort Salta itself, a plateau-ringed installation in southwestern Marley built for airship research, manufacturing, and training.